Marietta Monitor. (Marietta, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, March 4, 1910 Page: 7 of 8
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: Making' Convnr!oil
He (after embarrassing alienee)-
Don’t yon think the floor In unusually
flat to-night ?— Williams Furpla Cow
Fools Few People'
Counterfeit sympathy is one of tin
most easily detected imitations In the
world c
! The Philosopher of Felly
"The man who throws money to th
birds” says the Philosopher of Polly
"has a lot of nervo to pose as a lovar
of dumb animals" '
“Go
‘ i
i
r i
OWN near the oast
end of Long island in
quiet little Greenport
lived a min who may
as well be called John
Rivers John had a
small truck garden an
orchard' from Which
be sold apples and
pears a cow that gave
milk for the boarders
at the summer hotel and ' bens that
laid eggs for them John wds making
what the neighbors called a good liv-
ing for himself and wife and three
children -
One day John went to the postofiice
and was surprised to receive a nice
confidential letter- from James W
Snowden of t he Rio Vista Banana
Company of New York whose planta-
tions were in El Campo Brazil offer-
ing him shares in the company at low
figures that were soon to be advanced
60 per cent ‘ There was a prospectus
'accompanying the letter explaining all
about the plan John didn't know Mr
Snowden but Mr Snowuen seemed to
know him and as he required but a
little money only $10 a month and
guaranteed him two per cent a month
on his investment it was easy for
John on bis way home to sketch a
future of purple and gold especially
as the circular said that the food prod-
uct of the banana is to that of the
potato as 44 to 1 and to that of wheat
as 133 to 1
Next day be snt the first $10 to-
the Rio Vista Banana Company and
by return mall received ten shares of
the stock and a contract which ho
signed and forwarded to New York
For 25 months he kept sending $10 a
month but no dividend was returned
Then he wrote to Mr Snowden mak-
ing anxious inquiry as to why he was
receiving no profit on his $250 invest-
ment Mr Showden replied that in'
the spring the Rio de Janeiro had
overflowed its banks and the planta-
tion had been flooded This had killed
the banana trees and they had all had
to be replanted but the prospects were bright
for a big crop the next season and the planta-
tion would probably not require renewal for
15 or 20 years He must be A little patient and
meantime bear In mind that the product of an
acre of bananas was 44 times that of wheat
John shook his bead but sent two more
ten-dollar installments the last of which was
returned to him unsealed with the word ‘'Fic-
titious” stamped in big typo slantingwise
across the envelope Dazed he asked the vil-
lage postmaster what that meant
‘‘Means there ain’t no such company or
that it’s a fraud" explained the postmaster
John said nothing but went home looking
very thoughtfuL Two hundred and seventy dol-
lars gone!
But out of this experience John derived
one satisfaction When he received a circular
from the Inland Seas Copper Mining Company
of New York offering him large profits on a
small monthly investment he penciled the
word "Ficltitous” across the top of It in big
letters and sent it back But copies of the
same circular caught three men In his county
Now if John had but known it "Fictitious"
was stamped all over tbe banana bait upon
which he had bitten just as it la stamped
upon the literature of many advertising com-
panies that offer large profits to outside in-
vestors only the dupes don't see it
John is the type of sucker who was for-
merly caught hr the Sreen Soods operator—
though in paying good money for second-hand
sawdust he would have said nothing about it
to Jennie The only' reason why John and
thousands of others throughout the country
are becoming part owners in coffee banana
and rubber plantations gold mines cotton
fields irrigation lands timber lands oil wells
and many other enterprises instead of pur-
chasing green goods and gold bricks and get-
ting Into and out of similar games is because
these latter schemes are no longer profitable
to their operators on account of the extreme
Tisk in conducting them
Evolution in fraud as In everything else
Is the order of the day The crooks have been
educating themselves They have yearned for
a higher order of things and they have at-
tained to it Besides the higher order of
things Is the safer order To sell a man a
brass brick for a gold one is a crime and no
valid defense for it can be set up in court
hut selling shares in a rubber company which
is an easier game is on the face of It not a
crime and to convict such an offender of fraud
Is often very difficult
In getting his education the sure-thing op-
erator has passed through various stages of
progress The now unsafe shell game gold
brick and green goods swindles which he oper-
ated with such profitable results In the eight-
ies and the early nineties made way for the
half-interest game which flourished ten years
go and thh employment game which is still
zolng on though not to Its former extent The
half Interest advertiser sold you a partnership
In anything from a peanut stand to a piano
factory and when you had bought It the next
thing was to find it or if you found It you dis-
covered the It belonged to somebody else who
knew nothing about the man who sold It to
tou The employment game consists of an
opportunity to sell on high salary the goods
or stock of a company in which you must f rst
buy shares Tbeu when you havo paid over
yoor mosey you are asrixued territory gen-
erally a long distance from the company's of-
alter you have tons at your own
(ram
Bailey MilIarcS
jrz&s- ?zeoxr
c&r&wew of tfS’sce- z&ro
expense to Milwaukee Dubuque or Kansas
City there to await telegraphic orders as to-
what ’to do next you take It out in waiting
The orders never come and when you go back
to the company’s office you find that the com-
pany has floated away on the magic carpet -nobody
knows where
But it was soon found by the swindlers
(hat these devices like the green goods game
were rather-crude and almost equally unsafe
So to the education of the man who ran the
half interest or employment scheme was add-
ed a post-graduate course in high finance- It
-cqme to be recognized by the swindling gentry
that there was nothing like a corporation
when one wanted to do a really safe and pros-
perous business Then too the corporation
must have something somewhere If it is a
mining company It must have a bole in the
ground If a rubber or coffee company it
must have some sort of concession from the
Mexican or a South American government
which is always very easy to get If it is a '
cotton concern "it must have a fence corner
somewhero down south These things are ac-
tually necessary in order to show in court
when the time comes that the men who have
taken your money have endeavored to carry
out their part of the contract and that they
have failed is merely thir misfortune For
to fail in business Is not necessarily a crime
There is a firm in New York that collects
and sells addresses of people who buy things
through the mails or who have at some time
evinced a desire to do so These addresses
are sold at $8 a thousand They are assorted
under various headings If for example 12000
men have sent in applications for wives to a
New York matrimonial bureau that list la
worth $96 to a $3 diamond ring concern that
is setting up a circular mill
’ Speaking of the matrimonial game a New
York ma”n sent out 10000 circulars advertising
that a young widow with $40000 wished to
’ marry an industrious frugal gentleman no
objection to the country The replies were to
be sent to Bayonne N J where the advertiser
had a big mail box that was Boon stuffed with N
letters from marriageable men all over the 1
country The strange part of it all was that
’ the greater number of these men were actually
willing to pay half the traveling expenses of
the widow who invariably located such a dis-
tance from the would-be husband as would
make Bald half expenses about $15
When the 'postal authorities stopped his
mall the agent was Indignant He declared
his business was perfectly legitimate but
when an official demand was made for the pro-
duction of the widow and her $40000 he wilt-
ed A big stack of letters containing checks
snd money orders was stamped “Fraudulent"
and returned to the senders
The brokerage plan of Frances M McLean
' of 26 Broadway New York looked as straight
as a string to J B M Miller a Cincinnati
' grocer There couldn't be any fraud about It
because the circular referred to five eminent
and reliable business firms In New York Still
the shrewd Mr Miller thought It was Just M
well that the references be looked up par-
ticularly as the broker was a woman
Frances M McLean of 26 Broadway said
in her confidentially worded circular that she
bad for years been studying the "street” and
-rsidlousiy hlfited that the bad such relations
with big financiers as to be able to extract
from them Information of tremendous value to
br clients one of whom a Baltimore man
had made $30000 throve her advice and an
M?
go of
other of Bos-
ton $175000
So the 'cau-
tious Mr Mil-
ler sent let-
ters of Inquiry
to the reliable
firms to whom
Mrs McLean
referred A11
of them wrote
back to the ef-
fect that she
was a responsible business woman Then
somebody reminded Miller that 26 Broadway
Mrs McLean’s place of business was the
Standard Oil address which be accepted as
further proof of the lady broker's ability
though just why she preferred to have her
mail sent to box 3142 Station A was not evi-
dent Still after all it didn’t matter
Satisfied after these cunning precautions
Mr Miller sent his check for $300 to Mrs
McLean and by return mail learned that she
had invested bis pioney in Union Pacific at
the lowest quotations for that date He looked
up the quotations and saw by the closing fig-
ures that he had made $100 Some days after-
ward be noted that the 6tock had advanced
ten points Hooray! He had made $2000
Would he sell? Not yet His “advisory bro-
ker” as she called herself was evidently
onto the curves of the "street" and would
make a lot of money for him The stock con-
tinued to rise and then came a letter from
Mrs McLean stating that she had sold his
shares for $2200 net She did not however
inclose a check
“I have confidential advice" wrote the
broker in the same letter “that there is to be
a big movement in Pennsylvania A number
of my clients are putting in $3000 apiece to
get the benefit of the deal If you care to in-
vest $800 in addition to the $2200 in hand
here I will buy a similar amount of stock for
you” -
Mr Miller sent in his $S00 and as nearly
as he could figure out from the quotations he
was within a few weeks $3000 ahead
Then came the inevitable — a letter from
Mrs McLean saying that she regretted very
much to inform her client that she had sold
the Pennsylvania shares and with the pro-
ceeds had bought 5000 Smelters but that the
stock had gone down and he now owed his
broker $71462
The wild Mr Miller $1300 out of pocket
wrote back an Indignant letter but received
no reply Then he complained to the postal
authorities and showed them the circular But
they already had copies of it from ether dupes
and were investigating Mrs McLean and her
‘ references Every one of those reilnble New
York firms to whom she had referred turned
out to be n single individual
In the past few years there has been n
tremendous growth In the swindling industry
throughout the middle west and particularly in
such populous states as Ohio Indiana Illinois
snd Michigan Edwin W Sims United States
attorney for the northern district of Illinois
nhose office Is In Chicago has of late been
waging a relentless warfare against fake cor-
porations that sell stock from which the buyer
ueter realizes a dollar snd Invariably loses
all the money invested District Attorney Sims
has worked 4n connection with the postal au-
thorities snd has managed to secure an occa-
sional conviction ’From the testimony In a
l-rg number of caw investigated bytr
Sims In which fraud was evident anil where
the swindlers have been put out of business
it would seem that dupes grew on every bush
in tis district and that Chicago was the head
cectei of fraud but when I visited the office
of District Attorney Henry L Stimson of the
southern district of New York I found that
the swindlers of little old Manhattan were
keeping up their end In fact they far out-
number those of any other city in the country
The New York man who knows most about
these frauds as he deals Writli them every day
and dreams of them at night is Mr Walter S
Mayer postofflee inspector in charge of the
federal staff whose business it is to discover
hold up and punish people who use the mails
for swindling purposes
Mayer is a wonderful man He knows
nearly every fraudulent game there is going
and precisely how it is worked He knows
how to block schemes by which thousands of
good easy American dupes would be separated
from their cash
Is it not truly -wonderful with hosts of easy
good natured take-a-chance American people
to woik upon the swindlers do not desist frtm
tbeir operations when they face such awful
penalties? Oh but we are easy!
Wbat we need in this country — and we
need it badly— is a law such as they have on
the statute books of England making the issu-
ance of a false prospectus a misdemeanor
Here in order to insure a conviction our fed-
eral authorities virtually have to wait until
some one gets duped before the man who does
the duping can be prosecuted True the post-
office people can hold up the dn pel's mall and
ran scare him out of business but that is very
Utile satisfaction to the dupe who wants to
see the swindler punished Tbe fake rubber
companies have been driven from business in
New York Chicago and elsewhere but not
until they bad taken hundreds of thousands of
dollais from the people on seven-year con-
tracts at so much a month The members of
every legitimate rubber corporation tn the
country as well as many other persons knew
that the prospectuses of these rubber com-
panies were false but though millions of them
were sent out our federal laws could not touch
the swindlers xIn England they could hare
been haled Into court at once punished and
their game broken up but not in this country
For lack of proper legal means of punish-
- Ing these impostors postoffice inspectors some-
times feel Impelled to proceed without war-
rant of law but though they do this in some
cases they rarely make a mistake as experi-
ence has taught them how to know almost at
a glance what are and what are not swindling
schemes
But the day Is near at hand when tbe get-
rich quick concerns will no longer flourish
Still they are doing quite well thank you and
almost as muen swindling Is being done by
freuduVnt enterprises that make promisee of
wuwdertul profits I
Iron
Pure Iron Is only a laboratory
paration Cast iron the most gener-
ally useful variety' contains about five
per cent of Impurities and the curi-
ous thing Is that It owes its special1
value to th9 presence of these Pure-
Iron can be shaved with pocket
knife impure iron can be made sir '
most as hard as steel
L B?ck on the Job '
Where are the undesirable habits
of the yesteryear? — Washington Her-
aid ' "
Easy Information
If you would know Just what people
say of you behind your back listen
to what they say of others
l!
Happiness
Happiness is not that which you are
doing but the motive at the back of
the doing — Ell Wheeler Wilcox
- A Common Mistake 1
A good many people think they
have principles when they merely pos-
sess habits — Chicago Record-Herald
People who will not clean off their
sidewalks should contridbute to n fund
to supply the public with arctics gum
Bhoes snd hip boots -
Total resources of all the banka In
the United States reach J21100000-
000 Industry and sobriety are grand -little
tools are they not? ‘
One of the fashion journal says the
ladies will not wear rats next year
Pessimists will at once decide that
something equally absurd will be (
worn j r
A new book 4s entitled “Short Talks
With Young Mothers” Don't spank
Is the best short talk for young
mothers that comes to mind at tbe
moment
“The custom of waving the handker-
chief vigorously in the air is a dstt-
gerous one” says Dr Bading Yep 1
tbe handkerchief flirtation has led to
serious results
One of the professors says women's
senses are less acute than those of
man He probably bases his decision
bn the fact that a woman can get
along all winter with low Oboes
"In live years from now” says an
eminent physician “It will not be ve-
spectable to be I1L” Does he think all
the vermiform apendlces will have
been removed In the meantime?
Austria thinks jt wants a navy to
protect its ’citizens working in ‘the
undeveloped countries overseas” Now -what
countries are those?
A man is soon to be released from
the Connec'Icut penitentiary after
having been for 50 years a prisoner
He will find that there are many more
things to be dodged than when he
went in
Now the chief engineer of the Unit-
ed States geological survey estimates
the nation’s loss from the smoke nuis-
ance at $500000000 a year 1 At this
rat we are rapidly nearing the point
where smoke will be as costly a lux-
ury as beef and not half so nourish
ing
Of the translator in the employ of
the government who knows 20 old
languages and as many dialects it Is
said that he knows more diplomatic
iccriU than sny other man excepting
the president and the secretary of
state It must be a great thing to be
able to keep still In 20 different lan-
guages A Roumanian physician has discov-
ered an anesthetic by which opera-
tions can he performed upon con-
scious patients without any feeling of
pain to them It would be a fine test
to apply this remarkable discovery to
the operation due these shopping
times of operating upon the keenly
sensitive pocket nerve of the heads of
families
A petition is in circulation In Penn-
sylvania asking the legislature to es-
tablish a closed season for muskrat
Tbe reason for this Is found In to
fact that In Pennylvania and Mary-
land the flesh of the muskrat Is es-
teemed as highly by eplcurei a tha
flesh of the possum is esteemed In
the south Instead of hunting for
rat hides the marsh sportsmen are
tow after food that bring a good
price in the markets
OXLAHOMA DIRECTORY
FOR BEST RESULTS USE
0 K SEEDS best that grow
ASK YOUR DEALER FOR THEM
barteldes SEED CO
ni — e — u OKLAHOMA OTT
uAGiiii'M
SeWesterx Kusfadsiq Ca
E&!2aa CIEI2 IHT1E1
d VSU £ VT H ICLEO rw
a a m S — W
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Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Choate, Henry Willis. Marietta Monitor. (Marietta, Okla.), Vol. 15, No. 4, Ed. 1 Friday, March 4, 1910, newspaper, March 4, 1910; (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1752900/m1/7/?q=j+w+gardner: accessed July 6, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.